Light
by scotianfeet
Summary: POTW postep. Another, yes. Tears have streaked her face, this strange and fragile human form. The light of a billion stars gone nova, wearing Maybelline mascara.


_Have a good life. Have a fantastic life._

She's numb. Bangs at the central console, begging the world to shape to her will, begging the TARDIS to listen to her. He's dying, he's dying and she can't help him, can't even be there -

_It's not life. Not without you._

Tears, and resolve. The heart. She knows how to save him. She doesn't think about what it did to Blon, brushes aside the thought. It doesn't matter. _Come on, girl. We have to save him._

_Neither one of us can live this way._

The chain holds this time, and the console door finally gives - the white light is bright, so bright, like a star, a white hole - the heart of the TARDIS, the heart of everything. _See? Do you see?_ She doesn't know if they are her thoughts anymore - she is full, of everything, time and space and light, _light_ -

But she is still Rose. All this in an instant, and she slams the doors. There is no Rose now, no TARDIS - they are one, they are everything. _Save him._

They fly through time, through space, but it is nothing - a thought, like scratching her nose. She sees them all, all the ships, the Daleks, the evil - and the Bad Wolf. The vortex smiles, at the end and the beginning of the circle. _Everything has its place._

He is there. "Rose, what have you done?"

Tears have streaked her face, this strange and fragile human form - the light of a billion stars gone nova, wearing Maybelline mascara. _I want you safe._ She sees him, now, and yesterday, and tomorrow - all of him, all the death he has left in his wake, all the lives he has saved. Faces, companions, and a baby with two hearts in a yellow cradle. The man - not a man - before her, blue eyes that have seen the whole universe, that sent her away to keep her safe. _I could save the world, but lose you._ And even if he lost the world, he would still save her -

_My Doctor._ He looks at her, and she knows - there are no veils now, not with the universe fillling her brain, filling and burning her from the inside out. Rose feels her own emotions, so strong from such a fragile body - _I love him, don't I? And he _-- she knows, as she knows everything, and the tears keep coming, because his love is brighter than all the stars.

"Exterminate!" She watches the beam of energy extend, sluggish electrons barely a pinprick beside the universe -snail-like to the picoseconds she watches passing. She stops it. It is barely a thought, then, to dissolve them out of time, to save the world. To save him.

He is looking at her, watching her burn from the inside out. What is left of Rose cries out inside her, because she sees the past and the present, what could happen and what will happen, and she knows what he is going to do. _I'm going to rescue Rose Tyler. _She sees, and she knows, but can't help but trust him one last time. "I think you need a doctor." _No. Not now. I saved you. Doctor - _but the light is burning her eyes from the inside, and then -

He kisses her, and through the flames and the noise and the infinity of empty space, across the universe and all of time, she feels his lips on hers, soft and desperate and love, _love_, _light!_, leaves her and drains her and lets her alone. She is Rose now, or near enough - just Rose. She falls, spent, but alive.

He holds it now, the power, the heart of things - rides the crest, knows what to do. Has to concentrate - almost staggers, just for a moment, not from the light, but the _love_ - _silly little ape - what did I do to deserve that? _He knows it doesn't matter now. Sends it back, makes the TARDIS a TARDIS again, makes himself the Doctor, or near enough, and makes sure Rose, his Rose, is alright.

He bends and strokes her face, gathers her into his arms. He can feel the blood pulsing through her, a drumbeat of life in her neck and wrists and fingers. _Safe._

_I'm so glad I met you._

He sees the traces of the vortex crawling under his skin, and realises why her heartbeat was so loud in his ears. He explains, best he can, though the pain is muddling his words, straining his smile. She doesn't understand, doesn't quite believe, but he tries it anyway - what else is left, now?

"Before I go -" _I love you. _"You were fantastic". Why can't he say it?

She smiles at him, through her tears. _My Doctor. _And he knows it doesn't matter anymore, because they've both had a turn at being the universe, and they both knew all along anyway. It's there now, peace, just around the corner - he can feel the world fading from him. _Enough.._

"Come to think of it," and he grins, one last time. Because he saved her, and because she saved him, at the end and the begining. "So was I".

_Goodbye, Rose._ _Have a fantastic life._

And he was gone, in a burst of brilliant light.


End file.
